1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper processing apparatus for processing papers such as paper money and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a kind of paper processing apparatus, so far there has been known a consumer transaction facility (Cash Dispenser (CD), Automatic Teller Machine (ATM), and so on) provided at banks and other financial institutions, for executing transactions such as receipt of money, payment, etc.
As a consumer transaction facility as mentioned above, in Japan, a so-called recycle machine for making transactions of payment using not only paper moneys stored in a consumer transaction facility by a bank or other financial institutions in advance but also paper moneys received from customers has been mainly used. On the other hand, in countries other than Japan, there are not many transactions of receipt of money made by general customers and most of their transactions are payment transactions. Demands for transactions of receipt of money greatly vary with the place, and even if there is a case that receipt of money is required, a transaction facility is used as a safe for receiving paper moneys from a shop owner in most of such cases.
Here, a recycle machine for using paper moneys received from a customer for payment to other customers needs to have a built-in discrimination apparatus highly developed for strictly discriminating genuine paper moneys from forged ones among the received paper moneys, because it is not clear which customer will have the received paper moneys, thus the cost is extremely high.
On the other hand, a payment-dedicated machine may only perform simple discrimination processing like discriminating of two-ply paper moneys for example, because only paper moneys identified as genuine papers and stored in advance by a financial institution are used for payment. Thus, its cost is far lower than that of a recycle machine, like in the ratio of one to seven.
Even in a case that a transaction for receipt of money is required, if a machine in which received paper moneys are only stored and are not used for payment is used in such case, more sophisticated discrimination processing than the above payment-dedicated machine is required but strict discrimination processing is not required in many cases compared to a recycle machine, because it is easy to associate the received paper moneys with the customers who fed the moneys in the machine.
In view of the above-described circumstances, in countries other than Japan, a payment-dedicated machine is provided only when transactions of payment are required, and a recycle machine is provided only when transactions for receipt of money are also required, or a payment-dedicated machine and a recycle machine are provided side by side.
Thus, in countries other than Japan, provision of payment-dedicated machines is enough in many cases because of differences in matters of each country or differences in local areas of one country, etc., and demands for receipt of money greatly vary even when transactions for receipt of money are required. Here, when services for carrying out receipt of money are required, even if a demand for receipt of money is remarkably poor compared to a demand for payment, it is necessary to provide a payment-dedicated machine and a receipt-dedicated machine side by side or to provide a recycle machine like in the case of a great demand for receipt of money. As a result, in order to satisfy a poor demand for receipt of money, it is necessary to invest a large amount of money which is as much as that in the case of a great demand for receipt of money and disproportionate to a poor demand for receipt of money, and such investment will be wasted.
In view of the forgoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a paper processing apparatus of low cost that is capable of performing receipt of papers for which demand is poor such as receipt of moneys and the like.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides the first paper processing apparatus, in which papers are fed one by one from a first paper storing section for storing papers delivered to an exterior, conveyed on a predetermined first conveyance path, temporarily stored in a predetermined temporary storing section, and delivered from a predetermined paper delivery section in a block, and also papers having difficulties with delivery after being fed from the first paper storing section are led to a second conveyance path which is a divergent path of the first conveyance path and stored in a predetermined second paper storing section, the paper processing apparatus comprising:
a third conveyance path for receiving papers from the exterior and leading the received papers to the first conveyance path meeting the third conveyance path.
Here, the first paper processing apparatus, further comprising a mechanism for processing exterior papers wherein papers coming through the third conveyance path and further the first conveyance path are temporarily stored in the temporary storing section, and the temporarily stored papers are led to the second conveyance path and are stored in the second paper storing section. In this case, the mechanism for processing exterior papers may lead papers stored in the temporary storing section to the second conveyance path, and store the led papers in the second paper storing section or return the led papers to the exterior from the paper delivery section according to operation.
Since the first paper processing apparatus of the present invention has the third conveyance path, only by combining this apparatus with a paper receipt unit which will be described later, etc. and sending the papers from the exterior to the first conveyance path via the third conveyance path, processing for receiving papers (receipt processing for paper moneys) can be carried out in this apparatus, using a mechanism for paper delivery processing such as a mechanism for conveying papers, a temporary storing section, a paper delivery section and the second paper storing section. And also, even if the first paper processing apparatus is used as a delivery-dedicated machine (a payment-dedicated machine in the case of a consumer transaction facility as described above), compared with a machine that cannot be combined with a paper receipt unit, there will be only a slight increase in the cost since only the above-described third conveyance path is added to this apparatus.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention also provides the second paper processing apparatus comprising a paper delivery unit in which papers are fed one by one from a first paper storing section for storing papers to be delivered to an exterior, conveyed on a predetermined first conveyance path, temporarily stored in a predetermined temporary storing section, and then delivered from a predetermined paper delivery section in a block to the exterior, and also papers having difficulties with delivery after being fed from the first paper storing section are led to a second conveyance path which is a divergent path of the first conveyance path and stored in a predetermined second paper storing section; and
a paper receipt unit arranged on an upper side of the paper delivery unit, for receiving papers fed from the exterior,
wherein the paper delivery unit has a third conveyance path for receiving papers from the exterior and sending the received papers to the first conveyance path meeting the third conveyance path,
and wherein the paper receipt unit has a fourth conveyance path for transmitting the papers fed from the exterior and received one by one to the third conveyance path.
Here, like the first paper processing apparatus of the present invention, in the second paper processing apparatus of the present invention, it is preferable that the paper delivery unit has a mechanism for processing exterior papers in which papers coming through the third conveyance path and further the first conveyance path are temporarily stored in the temporary storing section, and the temporarily stored papers are led to the second conveyance path and stored in the second paper storing section. Or, the mechanism for processing exterior papers may lead papers stored in the temporary storing section to the second conveyance path, and store the led papers in the second paper storing section or return the led papers to the exterior from the paper delivery section according to operation.
The second paper processing apparatus of the present invention has a paper receipt unit for receiving papers (receipt of money for paper moneys) that is arranged on the upper side of the paper delivery unit having the same structure as that of the first paper processing apparatus. In the second paper processing apparatus, a usable part in the mechanism of the paper delivery unit (a portion performing payment transactions in the case of handling paper moneys) may be used as it is, the paper receipt unit may have only a mechanism specific to receipt of papers, and not only paper delivery processing (payment processing for paper moneys) but also paper receipt processing (money receipt processing for paper moneys) can be carried out without increasing the cost.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention also provides the third paper processing apparatus comprising a cassette mounting section for receiving and supporting at least one of paper storing cassettes of a first type which is removably mounted and stores papers to be delivered to an exterior and at least one of paper storing cassettes of a second type which is removably mounted and has a structure for storing papers conveyed;
a mechanism for delivering papers in which papers are fed one by one from a paper storing cassette of the first type which stores papers to be delivered to an exterior and is mounted on the cassette mounting section, conveyed on a predetermined first conveyance path, and temporarily stored in a predetermined temporary storing section, and then the temporarily stored papers are delivered from a predetermined paper delivery section in a block to the exterior;
a mechanism for collecting papers in which papers having difficulties with delivery after being fed from the paper storing cassette of the first type are led to a second conveyance path which is a divergent path of the first conveyance path and stored in a paper storing cassette of the second type mounted on the cassette mounting section; and
a mechanism for processing exterior papers in which papers fed from the exterior are received, conveyed on a third conveyance path meeting the first conveyance path and further the first conveyance path, and temporarily stored in the temporary storing section, and then the temporarily stored papers are led to the second conveyance path and stored in a paper storing cassette of the second type mounted on the cassette mounting section.
Here, in the above third paper processing apparatus, it is preferable that the mechanism for processing exterior papers leads papers stored in the temporary storing section to the second conveyance path, and stores the led papers in a paper storing cassette of the second type mounted on the cassette mounting section or returns the led papers to the exterior from the paper delivery section according to operation.
Also, in the third paper processing apparatus, it is preferable that the cassette mounting section is capable of having at least one of cassette mounting boxes of a first type for mounting a paper storing cassette of the first type and at least one of cassette mounting boxes of a second type for mounting a paper storing cassette of the second type, and capable of having at least one of cassette mounting boxes of the first or second type which is optional. Further, it is preferable that the cassette mounting section receives the paper storing cassettes of the first and second type respectively by the cassette mounting boxes of the first and second type arranged in the cassette mounting section and supports these paper storing cassettes of the first and second type by interposing these cassette mounting boxes of the first and second type.
Like the above-described paper processing apparatus, the third paper processing apparatus of the present invention has a structure for receiving the papers fed from the exterior, conveying them on the third conveyance path, and sending the conveyed papers to the first conveyance path. Therefore, only by combining this apparatus with a paper receipt unit, etc. and sending the papers fed from the exterior to the first conveyance path via the third conveyance path, processing for receiving papers can be carried in this apparatus using the mechanism of paper delivery processing. And also, even if the third paper processing apparatus is used as a machine dedicated to paper delivery (a payment-dedicated machine in the case of handling paper moneys), compared with conventional machines, there will be only a slight increase in the cost since only the above-described third conveyance path is added to this apparatus.
Moreover, since the third paper processing apparatus has a cassette mounting section that mounts a cassette for storing papers, it is convenient to handle the papers in this apparatus. Further, since optional numbers of the cassette mounting boxes of the first and second type can be arranged on the cassette mounting section as long as the number is equal to or lower than the maximum number, by combining this apparatus with a paper receipt unit, it is possible to meet various demands in which quantities of papers handled in paper delivery processing or paper receipt processing are different.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention also provides the fourth paper processing apparatus comprising a cassette mounting section for receiving and supporting at least one of paper storing cassettes of a first type which is removably mounted and stores papers to be delivered to an exterior and at least one of paper storing cassettes of a second type which is removably mounted and has a structure for storing papers conveyed;
a mechanism for delivering papers in which papers are fed one by one from a paper storing cassette of the first type which stores papers to be delivered to an exterior and is mounted on the cassette mounting section, conveyed on a predetermined first conveyance path, and temporarily stored in a predetermined temporary storing section, and then the temporarily stored papers are delivered from a predetermined paper delivery section in a block to the exterior;
a paper delivery unit having a mechanism for collecting papers in which papers having difficulties with delivery after being fed from the paper storing cassette of the first type are led to a second conveyance path which is a divergent path of the first conveyance path, and stored in a paper storing cassette of the second type mounted on the cassette mounting section; and
a paper receipt unit arranged on an upper side of the paper delivery unit, for receiving papers fed from the exterior;
wherein the paper delivery unit has a mechanism for processing exterior papers in which papers fed from the exterior are received and conveyed on a third conveyance path meeting the first conveyance path and further the first conveyance path, and the conveyed papers are temporarily stored in the temporary storing section, and then the temporarily stored papers are led to the second conveyance path and stored in a paper storing cassette of the second type mounted on the cassette mounting section; and
wherein the paper receipt unit has a mechanism for conveying exterior papers in which the papers fed one by one from the exterior are conveyed on a fourth conveyance path meeting the third conveyance path and sent to the third conveyance path.
Here, in the fourth paper processing apparatus, the mechanism for processing exterior papers may lead papers stored in the temporary storing section to the second conveyance path, and store the led papers in a paper storing cassette of the second type mounted on the cassette mounting section or return the led papers to the exterior from the paper delivery section according to operation.
Further, in the fourth paper processing apparatus, it is preferable that the cassette mounting section is capable of having at least one of cassette mounting boxes of a first type for mounting a paper storing cassette of the first type and at least one of cassette mounting boxes of a second type for mounting a paper storing cassette of the second type and capable of having at least one cassette mounting box of the first or second type. Further, it is preferable that the cassette mounting section receives the paper storing cassettes of the first and second type respectively by the cassette mounting boxes of the first and second type arranged in the cassette mounting section and supports these paper storing cassettes of the first and second type by interposing these cassette mounting boxes of the first and second type
The fourth paper processing apparatus of the present invention has a paper delivery unit having the same structure as that of the third paper processing apparatus, and a paper receipt unit arranged on the upper side of the paper delivery unit. In this apparatus, a part in the mechanism of the paper delivery unit which can be used for paper receipt processing may be used as it is, the paper receipt unit may have only a mechanism specific to receipt of papers, and processing for both paper delivery and paper receipt can be carried out without increasing the cost.
Also, like the third paper processing apparatus, the fourth paper processing apparatus of the present invention has a cassette mounting section and provides that the paper storing cassettes of the first and second type are removably mounted on the cassette mounting section, and therefore it is convenient to handle the papers. Furthermore, the number of the paper storing cassettes of these two types to be mounted on the cassette mounting section is optional as long as the number is equal to or less than the maximum number for mounting. By providing these cassettes in this way, it is possible to meet and adjust to both poor and great demands for paper receipt processing.